At some point over the last few months, we’ve all been affected by the floods that have it the UK – many places have been seriously affected and people are still suffering! An area that has recently been badly hit by the floods is the Thames Valley. What makes the suffering from the floods even more difficult to bear is the recent revelations that government-funded plans to improve flood defences along the Thames were not only delayed, but also downsized and in some cases, cut altogether!
Projects around Heathrow, Oxfordshire, West Drayton, Staines and other areas were due to receive millions of pounds of funding but budget cuts to the tune of nearly £100 million has resulted in significant delays, reductions and cancellations. For example, Penton Hook was due to receive £5.6m for flood defence work that is supposed to be done by end of March 2014; to date, they’ve received just £2m! Further south, a scheme to build bigger reservoirs and dams on the Upper Mole, totally £13.4m, has been delayed by more than three years!
The Committee on Climate Change has calculated that the gap in the government’s flood defence funding has resulted in £3bn of damage that could well have been avoided had budget cuts not been implemented. And it’s not like the government wasn’t warned; not only did their own committee voice their concerns, the Environment Agency made it very clear that if the country was to control the risk of flooding, significant spend was required over the coming years.
Ok, so, we’ve had the wettest winter for nearly two centuries and yes, the Thames, the Mole and other tributaries have been at their highest levels in generations – and are set to remain high for a number of weeks! And this recent extreme of weather is a serious warning shot across the bows to not just this government, but any government, that climate change is here to stay and is a matter that needs to be taken seriously.
With the Environment Agency stating that for every £1 spent on flood defences, £8 worth of damage is avoided; and with the government’s own scientists identifying that an increase in flood risk is the biggest impact from climate change in the UK, it’s time the ‘powers that be’ sit up and take notice!
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